Livano Comenencia scored past Manuel Neuer in front of a nation of 152,000 people, and you can be certain every single one of them lost their minds. That's what day four of the FIFA World Cup gave us — and honestly, it was enough.
Curaçao came into this tournament as the smallest country ever to qualify for a World Cup. The Caribbean island has a population roughly the size of Greater Darwin. They eventually lost 7-1 to Germany, but that stat line misses the point entirely. The 22-year-old Comenencia powered a shot past a goalkeeper who has won everything the game has to offer, and for a brief stretch in Dallas, Curaçao were level with four-time world champions. That moment exists now. Nobody can take it back.
The Oranje turned Dallas into Amsterdam
Netherlands fans didn't just show up — they shipped in an orange double-decker bus from across the Atlantic to make sure of it. A hype man on top, Dutch anthems blasting, and thousands of hi-vis orange supporters turning a 10-minute walk into an hour-long street party. Some flew in from the Netherlands just for the walk, no match ticket required. Locals adopted orange for the day. It's one of the most distinctive supporter traditions in international football, and it landed in Texas exactly as advertised.
On the pitch, the Dutch backed it up with a performance to match the atmosphere. After a 7-1 result like that, Netherlands will be among the shorter prices for the latter rounds — anyone looking at outright markets should note they look seriously dangerous early on.
The politics playing out off the pitch
UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin drew a joint response from governing bodies across Asia, Africa and the Caribbean after reportedly calling expanded 48-team World Cup matches "completely uninteresting." Associations from Curaçao, Cape Verde, Congo, Haiti, Jordan and Uzbekistan signed a statement alongside several African federations pushing back hard.
"Football does not belong to a select group of nations," the statement read. "Its strength comes from its universality." Given that Comenencia's goal happened within hours of that statement circulating, the timing couldn't have been written better.
Elsewhere, Somalia's Omar Artan — denied entry to the US at Miami airport last week despite being named Africa's best male referee in 2025 — will still receive his full tournament fee according to an anonymous source cited by AP. The amount gets confirmed after the tournament ends. Artan returned home to a hero's welcome and has already set his sights on the 2030 World Cup in Morocco, Portugal and Spain.
And Justin Trudeau skipped Canada's opener in Toronto to watch Katy Perry perform a pre-match show in LA. He tweeted that "supportive boyfriend duties" called. Canada's odds of winning the whole thing probably weren't affected by his absence, but still.
